Hazard reduction burns

[freqwaves]

There's Hazard reduction burns going on in Sydney at the moment as most would know by the smoke hovering around.
GRN Talkgroups & PMR Channels very busy this weekend.
Hearing my local RFS on Fireground channel 161.250.Don't seem to pickup a subtone.Are these radios programmed with a subtone?
Saw a RFS guy being interviewed on the news.He had 2 portables clipped on his orange suit.I presume the yellow radio is a Motorola GRN radio & the black one is his PMR radio? Is the PMR radio the VHF fireground radio or a UHF PMR one?

Thanks, John.

[Bigfella237]

~ 2 portables clipped on his orange suit.I presume the yellow radio is a Motorola GRN radio & the black one is his PMR radio? Is the PMR radio the VHF fireground radio or a UHF PMR one? Thanks, John.

G'day John,

All the new XTS5000 portables I've seen supplied to the RFS so far have been "safety" yellow so I'd say you would be correct, the PMR radio could be either UHF or VHF as there are FG channels in both bands, there are still a lot of those old ex-olympdics XTS3000's around in black too?

Just out of interest, which RFS talkgroups are most active on the GRN?

Andrew

[matthewn1983]

Site 109 today 30003 GD34 ILLWARA (quite busy), 10042 GD20 CMBRLND, 10074 GD87 STATEOP and 10077 WOLONDL, GD42 MCARTHR was active for a short time (6 voice grants in 3 hours)

[Longreach]

Hi all, VHF Fireground simplex channels dont have a subtone(dont know why, they get a lot of interference). only the VHF Repeater channels have a subtone (110.9Hz incidentlly)
cheers all\
Matt

[Bigfella237]

Hi all, VHF Fireground simplex channels dont have a subtone(dont know why, they get a lot of interference). only the VHF Repeater channels have a subtone (110.9Hz incidentlly) cheers all\ Matt

I always thought that was strange, especially when you take into account that they were originally created way back when VHF was all the rage (PF, Ambulance and just about everyone else were on VHF mid-band with a PL at the time)?

On the subject of HRs, if anyone has advance notice of an RFS district doing a big one please let us know here, could be interesting for some to listen in on?

Andrew

[Sigint]

I always thought that was strange, especially when you take into account that they were originally created way back when VHF was all the rage (PF, Ambulance and just about everyone else were on VHF mid-band with a PL at the time)?
Andrew

I think you will find that back in the early days, when channel spacing was still 30kHz, that very few organisations used CTCSS/PL.

CTCSS/PL basically didn't come into force till 25/12.5 kHz was introduced.

--
Sigint

[ivahri]

True, but CTCSS has been compulsory since about 1990ish... not many radios over 20 years old still in service so it seems pretty silly not to use CTCSS.

Richard